1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to articles of footwear in general, and in particular to articles of footwear adapted to facilitate an athletic activity involving the sliding or rolling along an edge defining a support surface such as a rail, curb or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Athletic footwear has gained immense popularity in the United States and throughout the world to be worn during exercise activities. Athletic footwear is known incorporating hard soles often used in bowling activity and to mount cleats used in baseball or softball athletic contests. Other athletes prefer shoes with cushioned soles such as in the case of tennis shoes or basketball shoes.
Other athletic or entertainment activity which has gained immense popularity in recent years is skateboarding and in-line roller skating. Highly athletic youthful participants have developed a maneuver commonly referred to as "grinding," wherein the athlete will jump into the air while riding a skateboard or wearing a pair of in-line skates and slide the undercarriage along an elongated track defined by, for instance, a hand rail, park bench back or curb edge.
Grinding shoes have been proposed which incorporate a hard plate in the arch area or other strategic location, typically on the sole of the shoe so the wearer can wear the shoe in a normal manner throughout the day and when the opportunity presents itself for a grinding activity, he or she can run toward a sliding surface formed by a rail, curb or the like, and leap upwardly mounting such sliding surface with the hard plate to slide such plate therealong. This activity has gained great popularity in the field and is currently enjoyed by many youngsters utilizing shoes marketed under the trademark SOAP.RTM. by the assignee of the present application. Such shoes incorporate grind plates of the type disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/890,595, filed Jun. 9, 1997, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/799,062, filed Feb. 10, 1997, which claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/022,318, filed Jul. 23, 1996, all assigned to the assignee of the present application.
The SOAP.RTM. grind plates are typically constructed with a saddle configuration to provide a downwardly open semi-cylindrical trough configured at the upper extent with a shaft line bearing surface extending from the lateral to the medial side of the shoe to be stabilized in a non-rocking fashion when centered over the rail.
The saddle shaped plate is typically turned upwardly on the medial lateral sides of the shoe to form forwardly and rearwardly extending raised retaining flanges embracing the opposite sides of the midsole.
Such shoes have gained enthusiastic acceptance in the marketplace and afford the wearer such comfort that youngsters of school age and the like prefer to wear such shoes throughout the length of the day so as to benefit from the status associated with such a footwear article and to be in the ready to execute a grinding maneuver whenever the opportunity appropriately presents itself. Experience has shown that there is a substantial flex of the shoe relative to the grind plate and consequently, relative to such retaining flanges. This then often results in the surface material of the shoe sole adjacent such flanges becoming worn through over a period of time thus resulting in a limited life span for the shoe itself. This then deprives the wearer of the opportunity to wear the shoe for the full length of the original grind plate or of benefitting from life of the shoe beyond that of the original grind plate. Consequently, a need exists for a shoe and plate apparatus which is adaptable for the ready athletic maneuvers associated with grinding activities but yet will endure the relatively active routine imposed on such shoes by active youth.
It is also an important feature of grinding shoes that the plate and shoe combination provide the athlete with the ability to closely control the maneuver undertaken. This often involves acceleration or deceleration along a rail at a controlled rate of speed. Such speed is often controlled by the relative positioning of the feet and consequently the grind plates on the rail. The ability to decelerate or decrease the rate of acceleration along the rail often becomes more important with the more extreme exercises. Thus, there also exists a need for a grinding shoe apparatus which in certain positions provides higher frictional resistance to sliding along the rail to thereby allow the athlete to assume such certain positions to enhance the braking effect tending to control the speed over such rail.